Netflix Signs DreamWorks Animation, Amazon Signs Fox For Streaming. Battle On!

Just today I was wondering when the fuck  Fringe was going to get up on the Netflix tip so I could finally watch it. Get the discs? Pshaw! I’m lazy. Well it may be going up soon, just on Amazon’s streaming service. Today Amazon and Netflix both announced huge streaming signings.

Slashfilm:

The Netflix-DreamWorks partnership is being touted by the two companies as the first time a major studio has chosen Web streaming over pay TV, signaling an expectation that online video will continue to grow in the near future. DreamWorks CEO  Jeffrey Katzenberg  called it a “game-changing deal” in line with the “long-term road map of where the industry is headed.”  Netflix  executive  Ted Srandos  agreed. “You’re seeing power moving back into the hands of content creators,” he said. “When a company like DreamWorks ends a long-running pay TV deal – when a new buyer in the space steps up – that’s a really interesting landscape shift.”

The DreamWorks catalog – which will include new movies like the upcoming  The Croodsand  Turbo, plus as older ones like  Kung Fu Panda  and  Megamind  – will be available for streaming on Netflix starting in 2013. Neither the value nor the length of the Netflix-DreamWorks pact has been revealed, though the  New York Times  estimates a worth of about $30 million per picture to DreamWorks. The deal replaces an earlier, less profitable one that DreamWorks had with HBO, as HBO agreed to end their deal with the studio two years early. It also allows DreamWorks to continue selling digital downloads; DreamWorks’ previous deal with HBO required that the studio suspend digital sales for a period to allow the network exclusive access.

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Meanwhile, Amazon continues to make inroads into the streaming market with its brand new Fox deal. The agreement brings Amazon’s total catalog of titles to about 11,000, and includes such shows as  Buffy the Vampire Slayer,  Arrested Development, and films like  Office Space  and  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (For comparison, Netflix has roughly 20,000 titles according to  All Things D). Netflix will continue streaming the Fox shows and movies it already has, but Amazon will have exclusive access to a few titles, including the much-loved series  The Wonder Years.

Thoughts? Anyone actually use Amazon’s streaming service?